Online poker news
Table facelift On Monday, partypoker unveiled its new-look poker tables. They aren’t a drastic change from the previous iteration, but there are clear improvements that the online poker room believes will make players quite happy. The most obvious changes are the visuals. Again, it still looks like partypoker – it’s not unrecognizable or anything –… Read more »
Turkey Day poker in the US PokerStars is the king of tournament series, so now is as good a time as ever for the site to introduce a new tournament series. On Wednesday, Stars revealed Fall Fest in the United States, with separate tournaments in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan running November 20-29. It’s all… Read more »
Over $10 million in guarantees To celebrate its 20th anniversary, PokerStars has announced a special tournament series, The Big 20 Rewind. Running November 14 through December 4, the Big 20 Rewind features – you guessed it – 20 tournaments. Each event represents an “iconic moment” in the online poker room’s history. PokerStars is guaranteeing $5.5… Read more »
Parties need more time Today was the deadline for sports betting and daily fantasy sports leader DraftKings to officially make an offer to buy partypoker owner Entain, but an offer never materialized. That does not mean that the deal is dead, however, as Entain has extended what it calls the “put up or shut up”… Read more »
I cannot begin to tell you how jealous I am of those of you living in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan (and Nevada and Delaware, but those aren’t totally relevant for our purposes right now). I used to play online poker every day. I wasn’t that good – probably break even at micro-low stakes before… Read more »
Just a little red tape Online gambling in Connecticut – including the highly anticipated online sports betting – has been delayed beyond the originally scheduled October 7 start date. The reason: an unforeseen hiccup with federal procedures. Because Connecticut gambling expansion required the compacts between the state and both the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and… Read more »
As the calendar page turned to October, PokerStars launched its new (“and improved”!) PokerStars Rewards loyalty program. Available on most Stars sites around the world, the update comes after three months of testing with about a fifth of the company’s player base. “Listening to community feedback, we know our players want more rewards, more ways… Read more »
Need a license to get in the game The Netherlands is cleaning its online gambling house, ready to start fresh in October. After Dutch lawmakers passed the Remote Gambling Act in April, internet gambling became legal, but operators must be licensed to offer their games. As such, Dutch regulator De Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has set a… Read more »
Apparently that wasn’t DraftKings’ best offer Late Tuesday, after partypoker’s parent company Entain confirmed that DraftKings had put forth an offer to buy the UK-based gambling company, Entain pulled back the curtain further, revealing that it was already considering a second offer from DraftKings. The original offer, according to CNBC, was for $20 billion. Entain… Read more »
Stars had already paid $100 million Flutter Entertainment, parent company of online poker giant PokerStars, has settled its legal battle with the state of Kentucky, agreeing to pay $300 million in fines. It is a healthy chunk of change, but a far cry from the $1.3 billion Flutter was starting at in case that dates… Read more »
That’s a serious offer The financial markets were abuzz on Tuesday with the news that daily fantasy sports and sports betting giant DraftKings has made a $20 billion offer to acquire UK-based gambling company Entain. According to CNBC, the offer is in both stock and cash, but mainly the former. The Entain name in and… Read more »
Rok Gostisa won the 2021 WPT World Online Championships Main Event on Tuesday, using a huge bluff and getting some blessings from the poker gods heads-up to beat out 1,178 players and cash for $959,493. The Main Event was spread over more than two weeks using a structure we have seen more and more of… Read more »
With the 2021 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas just around the corner, there was still the little matter of the WSOP Online to finish up this weekend. Highlighting the closing festivities was Aleksei “Ha KoJleHu” Vandyshev, who won the $5,000 Main Event Online Championship on GGPoker and the $2,543,073 first prize. GGPoker guaranteed… Read more »
Flutter Entertainment announced on Monday that it is putting a deposit limit on young players in the UK and Ireland. Effective immediately, customers under the age of 25 on Betfair, Paddy Power, and Sky Betting & Gaming will have a net deposit limit of £500 per month. Flutter is willing to make exceptions for some… Read more »
Normally when people find out that I work in the poker industry, they will have a host of questions about it. Sometimes it is the casinos, sometimes it is the players, and sometimes it is about the game itself. One of the questions I get the most is “What is better: online or live poker?”… Read more »
The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is currently underway, but that does little good for players in the United States, who cannot play on the dot com version of the poker room. Good news, though, as Stars just announced that its sites in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey will all have “COOPs” of… Read more »
It may have taken some time to get off the ground, but the online gaming industry in Pennsylvania is finally beginning to hit its stride. In July 2021, the burgeoning online casinos in the Keystone State cracked the $100 million mark in revenues. Leading the way were online slots and table games, with online poker… Read more »
The situation in the tournament poker world is one that is currently in a great deal of flux. After postponing their stop at bestbet Jacksonville in August, the World Poker Tour will move one of their flagship stops, the Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, to a fully online affair. As a part of the… Read more »
20th anniversary for online poker’s highlight series PokerStars has announced the complete schedule for the 2021 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), the 20th running of the granddaddy of all online poker tournament series. Running August 22 to September 15, the 2021 WCOOP will have 102 events and $100 million in guaranteed prize pools. Through… Read more »
Running it back If there was a silver lining to all the cancellations of live poker tournaments and festivals because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was that they led to the birth of many successful online events. One of these was the WPT World Online Championships, hosted by partypoker, which returns again this year. Scheduled… Read more »
In late April, we found out that the international portion of the 2021 WSOP Online was going to start on August 1, but the schedule had yet to be determined. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. On Tuesday, GGPoker announced the 33-bracelet schedule for its portion of the WSOP Online, slated for August 1… Read more »
Tournament had a gigantic overlay PokerStars ran into what it called “technical issues” Sunday night, forcing it to cancel a big guaranteed tournament. The event was the special Sunday Storm 10th Anniversary tournament, featuring a massive $1 million guaranteed prize pool for just an $11 ($9.80 + $1.20) buy-in. The tournament began at 2:00pm and… Read more »
Eight events just for Pennsylvania players In writing about last week’s launch of WSOP.com in Philadelphia, I said that players on the site would not be able to compete for World Series of Poker bracelets. Well, it turns out I was wrong. Not completely wrong…let’s just say a bit off (something, coincidentally, my wife would… Read more »
Building on 2020 The complete schedule is still to come, but poker players around the world can start moving things around on their work and social calendars, as PokerStars has announced the dates for the 2021 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Running August 22 through September 15, this year’s WCOOP comes with $100 million… Read more »
Not 24/7 just yet WSOP.com has gone live in Pennsylvania. The online poker room began its soft launch period on Monday, July 12 at 2:00pm ET; it will run through July 15. As long as no problems arise that would necessitate extended downtime or regulatory review (it would be very unusual for this to happen),… Read more »
